I have been privileged to be involved in a small way in a brilliant project based in Brighton dedicated to sending over second hand winter clothes to refugees in Iraq.

It is a simple idea, as all the best ones are: whatever your views on Iraq (and I have made clear my opposition to the recent bombing for example), everyone agrees that the many thousands of refugees within Iraq desperately need help with appropriate clothing before the onset of the harsh winter.

The Green Parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown, Davy Jones, has sounded a warning about how lax planning controls are paving the way for the gradual disappearance of green spaces and wild life habitats, especially on the urban fringe.

So Parliament is to be recalled by David Cameron to authorise air strikes in Iraq. While no ground troops are proposed yet, President Obama has not ruled them out. We are heading for war AGAIN in the Middle East. It is time to stand up and say no to this madness!

We have been here before with military interventions in the Middle East. It is time to draw lessons from them. They have all been catastrophic failures – Iraq, Libya and Syria. They don’t work.

Whatever the result of the Scottish Referendum on Independence (and a “Yes” vote now looks a real possibility) the Scottish people have done the rest of us a huge favour.

They have shown that you can campaign positively for radical change. You can win the hearts and minds of people that another world is possible. You can take on the whole political establishment in an apparently hopeless quest for a “utopian” policy. It is a triumph for the politics of hope over fear.